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Common Shoulder Injuries and Their Remedies

Duty shoulder injuries, you may feel pain all the time or when you are trying to move your arms. The common shoulder injuries involve problems in the muscles, tendons, cartilages and ligaments. Shoulder injuries are very common as shoulder allows us a wide range of movements of the arm. Because of repetitive and intense work routine developing shoulder pain is of no surprise. The pain may also be caused by accidents.

Instability or impingement of the soft tissues as well as the structure of the bone results in the pain in the shoulder. The pain may at different times of the day or you may feel it all the time. The main target is to find some alternative medications to get rid of the pain or to reduce it to a tolerable limit.

Common Shoulder Injuries and their symptoms
and treatments

Before starting the medication, you have to
know if you have shoulder injuries or not.

Can you move the arm freely?

Is your shoulder stiff?

Are you feeling normal when you
are doing regular works that involve the movement of the shoulder or is it
painful?

Some rests and exercises can help you in solving
the problem. But some injuries will need special care. The shoulder consists of
three bones upper arm or the humerus, scapula or the shoulder blade clavicle or
the collar bone. Issues with any one of these can cause severe pain. Let’s
discuss those.

Dislocation

If the top of the arm bone is disconnected
from the scapula it is called dislocation. Dislocation can occur due to too
much pulling or rotation of the arm and the top of the arm may pop out of the
socket. With a dislocated shoulder, you will feel pain and weakness.
There may be bruising and numbness as well. One of the very common shoulder injuries from
falling is the dislocation.

Dislocation or Shoulder instability Treatments

Doctors will place the dislocated ball-shaped top of the arm back into the socket. When the joint is back in its place the pain is also stopped. The whole process is known as close reduction.

Surgical
procedure involves arthroscopic capsulorrhaphy. It
utilizes sutures to repair the damaged/injured tissue. It removes the
instability or dislocation of the shoulder.

Rotator Cuff tear

Rotator cuff is a group of tendons and muscles that holds your arm in position and allows the arm movement overhead. There
are four rotator cuff muscles that are very critical to move the shoulder. The
problem of the rotator cuff may increase along with age. Shoulder can hurt at night and at the time of
throwing or when you are trying to reach something. You will sometimes hear a
crackling sound while moving the arm.

Rotator Cuff tear Treatment

Resting, putting ice of the injured place
and physio therapy are the some of the nonsurgical treatments for rotator cuff
tear. In severe cases, doctors suggest injecting steroids in the arm (after a
lot of diagnosis of course). However, in
much sever case, a surgical approach is mandatory. It includes removal of bone
spur through arthroscopy. Sometimes a shoulder replacement is also required
which is known as the reverse shoulder arthroplasty.

Separation

The joint where collarbone and shoulder
blades are getting together is affected due to separation of the shoulder. The
joint is known as the acromioclavicular (AC) joint. Any hard blow or fall on
the shoulders can tear the ligament holding the joint together. And you will
see a bump if your collarbone is pushed out of its location.

Treatments

For less severe issues some rest and
support on the shoulders would do. Along with this some ice to reduce the
inflammation will also help to reduce the swelling and inflammation. Over the
counter medications and physical therapies also help.

Sometimes these conservative treatments do
not work. In those cases, surgeons are also confused about going for a surgery
or not. These cases can be solved by either conservative medicines or by
surgery. It needs extra precaution to decide what method to be applied.

Surgery is mandatory to realign the damaged
or torn ligaments to hold the clavicle in its place and give it a chance to
heal. Arthroscopic surgeries are used to align and stabilize the separated
shoulder bones.

Fracture

Mostly due to accidents and heavy fall you
may break your shoulder bones. Clavicle (Collar bone) and humerus are most
prone to damage. They are situated close to the shoulder. You will have huge
amount of pain if collarbone breaks. Lifting shoulder is also difficult due to
injuries in the bones. Sometimes surgical procedures are necessary to put the broken
pieces of the shoulder bones together.

Treatments

Majority of the clavicle fractures are
cured with rest and by being careful in the movement of the shoulder. You will
need surgery if the broken bone has come out through the skin or totally
displaced. The surgery involves putting the bones back by means of nuts and
bolts.

Like clavicle fractures, proximal humerus
fractures can be treated without surgery if it is not dislocated. Rest, careful
movement and some medications will give some relief and gradually you will be
healed.

Scapula fractures treatments may involve
immobilization by a shoulder sling or a shoulder immobilizer. Some medications
or injections may be applied. In severe cases surgery is required.

Shoulder Joint Tear

You can damage your cartilage because of
some tear on the shoulder joint. It can happen due to some f­atigue. When your
shoulder undergoes lots of forces or hit hard you can damage the cartilage.
Shoulder seems weak. Sometimes you can feel severe pain trying to reach over
the head.

Treatment

Shoulder joint treatment involves
anti-inflammatory and non-steroidal medication for pain relief. If surgery is
needed then the physician will insert the micro surgical instruments through
the small incision of the shoulder. It has some fiber optic camera attached
with it.

Frozen Shoulder

This can limit your arm movement. In the
joint undesired bands of tissues are built up. This bands keep your shoulder
from moving freely. You will feel a freezing effect in the shoulder due to
pain. According to the characteristics of the stiffness and pain it can be also
categorized as adhesive capsulitis. Over the time period the situation of the
shoulder can be worsen.

Frozen Shoulder treatment

General medication, steroid injection and
physio therapy along with exercise will slowly improve the range of movement of
the frozen shoulder patient.

If it does not work the doctor may suggest
shoulder manipulation. It involves the use of the anesthesia on the shoulder or
using arthroscopic capsular release. In case of shoulder manipulation, you will
put to brief sleep and the physician will manipulate the shoulder by gentle
stretching the capsule and scar tissues. It increases the range of the shoulder
movement. In case of capsular release minimal invasive instruments will put
through the shoulder incision. The instruments will allow the capsule to expand
and improve the range.

Shoulder Impingement

This is also known and rotator cuff
tendinitis. Rotator cuff tendons get pinched in the bones. As a result,
swelling and pain is there in the shoulder. Lifting your arms too frequently
can set off the impingement. Whether you are athlete or a middle-aged person
there is a possibility of experiencing the shoulder impingement in some stage
of your life.

Treatments

Complete rest and physical therapies can
cure the injury. But it may take weeks to several months to completely heal
from shoulder impingement. Many patients get into normal activities gradually
with proper treatments involving steroid injections, medicines and therapies.

In unlucky cases surgical treatment is
required if the pain is not relieved by the meds and therapies. Doctors may
suggest to remove the part of the acromion generally known as the subacromial
decompression. Fiber-optic camera is inserted through the small incision around
the shoulder to perform the surgery by means of arthroscopy.

Some generalized causes of shoulder
symptoms

Sudden injuries – are the most
common causes of shoulder symptoms. Acute or sudden injuries may occur by
falling on an outstretched arm. Direct hit on the arm or abnormal fall creates
sudden and severe pain. You may feel numbness, weakness on the shoulder, arm or
hand. Acute shoulder injuries include bruising, sprains, tendon problems,
muscle pull, nerve injuries (e.g. brachial plexus neuropathy), separation, torn
rotator cuff, fractures as well as dislocation of the shoulder.

Overuse Injuries – can grow
gradually and you will not have any specific injury in mind. Due to over
stressing of the shoulders the joint area of the bones may be injured. The
inflammation of the fluid sac that lubricates and protects the joints may get
harmed. Overuse injury can cause tendinitis (Inflammation of the ropy fibers
connecting the muscle and bone together). Abrasion or inflammation of rotator
cuff tenons is very common. Muscle strain and frozen shoulder is also a great
possibility of overusing your shoulders.

Other cause may include muscle
tension. Poor posture is another reason. It happens due to not sitting,
sleeping or lifting something in the right way. Infection or invasive cancer,
osteoarthritis, calcium buildup in the tendons as well as cartilage damage are
the other reasons.

Alternative medications for common Shoulder Injuries

Active life, good diet, healthy life style
and maintaining rules will help you to remove common shoulder injuries from the
root. But if the surgery is not required, merely some home remedies will work
as shoulder pain treatment. If you are into alternative medications then this
section is for you. I will share some simple home remedies and you will know
how to fix shoulder pain without visiting a doctor.

Home remedies for shoulder pain

Sometimes the injury in the shoulder can be
so severe the patient cannot bear it and screams in pain. Some people find it
so painful that they cannot even comb their hair. So hopefully if you use this
home remedy you will get relief gradually. So, let’s make the medicine –

Take 4 walnuts powder, 2 table
spoons of fenugreek seeds powder and half tea spoons carom seed powder. Mix
these powders together and take every morning with water before breakfast in
empty stomach. It will solve the problem internally.

After breakfast take one glass
cow’s milk and put a pinch of turmeric and boil it. Afterwards when the milk is
cooling down, drink it while it is still Luke warm. If possible, add some Ashwagandha powder and
honey (If you do not have diabetes).

Take 50 mgs of rock salt and
mix it with some 50 mgs carom seeds and put this a clean cloth to make a bag
and heat it. Use this bag to heat you shoulder. It will reduce the sever pain.

Another remedy involves the
ladies’ finger or the okra. Take four okra and cut each okra in 4 pieces. And
keep them in one glass of water for the night. And take the water only in the
morning without the vegetable.

Take this one, half an hour
after the powder mentioned in the point 1. Take 60 mgs of wheat and keep it in
water for whole night. In the morning take the wheat out and make paste, add 30
mgs of poppy seeds and 30 mgs of coriander powder. Mix all these with 250 mL cow’s milk. And
boil for sometime and make it thick. Take this thick milk. You will get great
relief and feel good.

Now make a massage oil. Take
100 mL mustard oil, add 50 mgs carom seed and 50 mgs garlic and cook it until
the garlic and carom seeds are totally burnt. Use this oil in the affected area
2-3 times a day. This is a great medicine.